Afterword

Objective. Recent studies have confirmed that social trust is one of the most important correlates of well-being in different populations and contexts. However, there is a lack of research on this relationship in the context of migration. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the importance of several social trust indicators for well-being of Lithuanians and Lithuanian emigrants and to compare this relationship in both groups taking into account their social and demographic characteristics. Methods. One thousand two hundred and nine Lithuanians (52.2 % Lithuanian emigrants; 19.9 % males) participated in the cross-sectional online survey on a voluntary basis. Emotional, social, and psychological well-being was measured using the short form of Mental Health Continuum Questionnaire (MHC-SF, Keyes, 2009). The sense of general trust in people and social trust in different governmental and public institutions was measured using 12 separate questions based on the European Social Survey. Results. Lithuanian emigrants reported higher trust in institutions and higher emotional, social, and psychological well-being; meanwhile, non-migrants had higher general trust in people compared to emigrants. Higher trust in various institutions was an important factor in the prediction of higher emotional, social, and psychological well-being of Lithuanian emigrants and of higher psychological well-being of Lithuanians who stayed in their home country. Emotional and social well-being of non-migrants was explained by higher general trust in people, higher trust in institutions and higher levels of family income. Social trust variables showed the highest predictive value in all regression models. Conclusion. Thus, social trust (especially trust in institutions) is an important predictor of well-being in Lithuanians and Lithuanian emigrants.

Social trust, cultural trust, and the will to sacrifice for environmental protections

Background: An estimated 3.8% of the population is depressed, including 5% of adults (4% in men and 6% in women), and 5.7% of adults over the age of 60. Around 280 million people in the world are depressed (World Health Organization, 2023). Depression not only impairs functional abilities, lowers the quality of life, and increases the mortality rate of the elderly, but also poses a heavy economic burden on the elderly themselves, the community, and the health care system. This study aims to determine the effects of social network, social trust, and social participation on depression.Subjects and Method: The meta-analysis study was carried out according to the PRISMA flowchart and the PICO model. Population: adults. Intervention: high social network, high social trust, and high social participation. Comparison: low social network, low social trust, and low social participation. Outcome: Depression. The basic data used involves Google Scholar, PubMed, BMC, Science-Direct, and Springer Link. Multivariate analysis criteria that attach aOR values. Data analysis using the Review Manager 5.3 application.Results: Seven primary studies were used to analyze trust with depression. Adults with high trust may lower depression 0.80 times compared with low trust (OR= 0.80; 95% CI = 0.76 to 0.83); p<0.001). Five primary studies were used to analyze social participants with depression. Adults with high social participation may reduce depression by 0.81 times compared to low social participants (OR= 0.81; 95% CI= 0.75 to 0.88; p<0.001). Four primary studies were used to analyze social networks with depression. Adults with high social networks may reduce depression by 0.62 times compared with low social networks (OR= 0.62; 95% CI= 0.57 to 0.68; p<0.001).Conclusion: Social networks, social trust, and social participation reduce depression in adults.

There have been two main arguments concerning the effects of family relationships on social trust. The first claims that the intensity of the family relationship reduces the capacity of the family members to interact in the outside world, where social uncertainty prevails. The second considers that trust inside the family spills over into trust in strangers. There is a corollary to the first argument: intense family relationships, by reducing social trust, affect community development negatively. In this article, I show, first, that it is the intensity of family relationships, and not trust in the family, that negatively affects social trust, and, second, that there is an interaction effect between trust in the family and state efficacy on social trust. While high trust in the family and low trust in strangers can go together, the relationship is spurious. It is low state efficacy that causes low trust in strangers and, to a lesser extent, high in-family trust. These arguments are tested with a sample of 44 countries from the 2005 wave of World Value Surveys.

Do investors prefer borrowers from high level of trust cities? Evidence from China’s P2P market

A sticky trait: Social trust among Swedish expatriates in countries with varying institutional quality

On August 25, 2003, the Ticho Peoples of the Northwest Territories signed a combined comprehensive land claim and self-government agreement with the Government of Canada. In addition to transferring ancestral lands back to the Ticho Peoples, the Agreement provides the Ticho Peoples with the right and freedom to define how their lands and its resources are managed. The establishment of such an Indigenous government presents an opportunity to create new institutions of governance that meaningfully include Indigenous values and that reflect traditional knowledge and practices of the Tcho Peoples. This thesis poses two questions. Has Ticho self-government resulted in the creation of unique Indigenous government institutions that incorporate Indigenous approaches, customs and habits (Indigenous perspectives)? Have these Indigenous institutions been meaningfully incorporated by formal government institutions at the watershed and territorial level? This study is situated within the broader debates surrounding reconciliation. It argues that meaningful reconciliation requires more than simple acknowledgement of rights or a duty to consult; it requires meaningful integration of Indigenous practices and perspectives into formal institutions, and most importantly, formal government institutions.

While management studies show that micro‐level trust within and between firms affects firm performance and innovation, it is unclear how macro‐level trust, namely social trust, affects corporate decisions. Addressing this is important because micro‐level trust is shaped by macro‐level social norms. A growing literature finds that corporations are influenced by local social norms. Drawing from this insight and using various measures of social trust, we examine the impact of social trust on dividend payouts. We find that levels of social trust, both in terms of directly measured trust and trust inferred from concomitant levels of civic social capital, negatively impact dividend payouts of local firms across Chinese provinces. We argue that community social trust supplies governance and plays a substitute role for dividend payouts, with a higher level of social trust engendering a lower demand for dividend payouts. This negative effect is more pronounced for younger firms, companies with high growth potential and firms in regions of less‐developed institutional environments. We further show that agency cost plays an important mediating role, since high social trust reduces agency cost, jointly affecting dividends. Firms in high‐trust regions make meaningful use of their greater retained earnings for research and development and innovations.

This chapter pursues the topic of low trust in high trust environments. The consequences of low institutional and social trust have become the object of intense interest within sociology. The chapter primarily focuses on the comparative study of changes in social trust levels and the effects of dominating high or low social trust majorities. It also focuses on the Danish low social trust minority and subsequently compares it to the Austrian low social trust majority, finding new differences and similarities in modes of trust. In the Danish case the high trust responses are closer to the centre of the first axis, whereas in the Austrian case the low trust responses are closer to the centre of their population mean. Finally the chapter concludes that the Austrian case supports the concept of mistrust, but offers no evidence to support the concept of distrust. Keywords:Austrian low social trust majority; Danish low social trust minority; distrust; high trust environment; mistrust

Social trust and firm innovation: Evidence from China

Racial/ethnic disparities persist in antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence and viral suppression. We examined associations between state-level social trust and individual-level ART adherence and viral suppression and assessed whether these relationships varied by race/ethnicity. The Medical Monitoring Project (MMP) annually reports nationally representative estimates of the behavioral and clinical characteristics of HIV-positive adults in primary care. A total of 3298 adults diagnosed with HIV between 2015 and 2016 from 16 US states were included. We used weighted logistic regression to model the association between state-level social trust, race/ethnicity (Non-Hispanic Black, White, and Hispanic/Latino), and cross-product interactions with ART adherence (a binary measure derived from three self-reported questions), and viral suppression (a binary measure corresponding to plasma HIV RNA < 200 copies/ml). Social trust was the percentage of people in each state who agreed that most people in their neighborhood could be trusted. A high level of social trust was associated with a higher likelihood of ART adherence (PR [prevalence ratio] = 1.17; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.05-1.30). In covariate-adjusted analyses, the association between state-level social trust and individual-level ART adherence significantly varied by race/ethnicity (Wald χ2 F = 9.8 [df = 4], p = 0.044). Social trust was positively associated with ART, but the effect was smaller for Blacks than for Whites (PR = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.57-0.82) in states with the lowest social trust. Black-White differences were closed and no longer significant above mean social trust (PP [predicted probability] = 0.50 vs. 0.53, at two standard deviations). Racial/ethnic disparities in ART adherence were closed among individuals living in states with high social trust. Understanding the mechanisms that promote social trust among neighbors may have downstream impacts on reducing disparities in ART adherence among people with HIV (PWH).

Förtroende för andra människor och samhälleliga institutioner är centralt för den sociala sammanhållningen. Tidigare forskning indikerar att förtroendenivåerna i Finland har sjunkit under de senaste decennierna. Detta har dock inte undersökts specifikt bland den äldre befolkningen, och i synnerhet inte för de äldre i landskapet Österbotten. Syftet med denna studie är att analysera förändringar i politiskt, institutionellt och socialt förtroende från år 2005 till 2016 bland svensk- och finskspråkiga äldre personer i Österbotten. I studien analyseras data från enkätstudien Gerontologisk Regional Databas (GERDA) utförd i Österbotten. Urvalet inkluderade 65- och 75-åringar och bestod av 1545 individer år 2005 och 1742 individer år 2016. Logistisk regression användes för att estimera sannolikheten för att ha högt förtroende enligt studieår och språkgruppstillhörighet i vartdera förtroendemått samtidigt som olika sociodemografiska faktorer inkluderades som kontrollvariabler. Nivån av politiskt och institutionellt förtroende var statistiskt signifikant lägre år 2016 jämfört med 2005 medan ingen signifikant förändring hittades gällande det sociala förtroendet. Resultaten visade också att förändringarna i förtroendemåtten varierade mellan språkgrupperna. De lägre nivåerna av förtroende som hittades i denna studie är ett potentiellt hot mot det sociala kapitalet som i sin tur är en viktig möjliggörare för ett aktivt åldrande och borde därför uppmärksammas och undersökas vidare.

This article examines the impact of ethnic diversity in Danish municipalities on citizens' social trust over the last three decades. During this period, Danish society has grown increasingly ethnically diverse, and this begs the question whether this has influenced trust in others negatively. Existing evidence from the Anglo‐Saxon countries would suggest that this is the case, whereas evidence from the European continent mainly suggests that no link exists between ethnic diversity and social trust. The empirical analysis uses individual‐level data on social trust from several surveys in Denmark in the period from 1979 to 2009 coupled with diversity at the municipality level. Individual‐level measures of trust over time enable estimation of the impact of changes in ethnic diversity within municipalities on social trust and, it is argued, thereby a more precise estimate of the effect of ethnic diversity on trust. The results suggest that social trust is negatively affected by ethnic diversity. The article concludes by discussing this result and suggest avenues for further research.

Does social trust influence safety and tourists’ destination choice? Our claim is that the roots of safety may take two forms: either formal institutions or informal institutions. Formal institutions concern how society can build up control mechanisms through the legal system, police authority and military. The problem is that high visibility of police and military in public spaces may give the tourist the impression of an unsafe and insecure destination. Instead, social trust through self-enforcements of social norms for behaviour may be important because the informal institutions guarantee the safety of tourists (and locals) without signalling a problem with safety. Building social trust may further enhance the feeling of safety and thereby attract even more tourists. Thus, our trust-safety theory may guide the active use of social trust by tourist officials and policy makers.

Government is an important institution in every society, but public trust in government has been declining worldwide. Like social trust, institutional trust in government manifests in two forms—goodwill-based (based on intentions and purposes) and competence-based (based on competence and performance). Using archival data of the AsiaBarometer (2004), I found a cross-level interaction effect of intercultural experience and social trust culture on goodwill-based, but not competence-based, institutional trust in government. Intercultural experience was negatively related to goodwill-based institutional trust in government within regions of low social trust but not within regions of high social trust. Both types of institutional trust in government within regions of high social trust were lower than those within regions of low social trust. Furthermore, both types of institutional trust in government were positively related to socioeconomic, public, and personal life satisfaction. These findings shed light on the tension between institutional trust in government and social trust as well as a government’s dilemma posed by intercultural experience.